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Welcome to 2018. It’s been an apocalyptic start to the new year.

Welcome to 2018. It’s been an apocalyptic start to the new year. And according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the worst could be yet to come.

The agency wants the American public to get ready for the possibility of a nuclear strike, reports Politico, and it has posted a notice for a Jan. 16 briefing titled “Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation.” The session in Atlanta, Georgia will include experts on radiation and disaster preparedness and discuss what federal, state and local governments are doing to prepare.

The photo included in the CDC’s notice.(courtesy of CDC)

“While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps,” the notice says, next to a photo of a nuclear explosion. “Planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness. For instance, most people don’t realize that sheltering in place for at least 24 hours is crucial to saving lives and reducing exposure to radiation.”

The notice comes amid escalating tensions between the US and North Korea, which has featured Donald Trump taking to Twitter to taunt Kim Jong-un for having a smaller nuclear button.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

Over the weekend, Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George W. Bush and Barack Obama, appeared on ABC’s This Week to voice what we’re all afraid of. “We’re actually closer, in my view, to a nuclear war with North Korea and in that region than we have ever been,” he said.